LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — On Thursday, the Lanesborough Senior Tigers will head to Sparta, N.J., to take part in the Northeast Regional of the Hall of Fame World Youth National Football Championship Tournament.

 

The Tigers are one of four teams invited from the Northeast and will start tournament play on Friday in Sparta. If the Tigers win this weekend’s tournament, they will have the opportunity to play at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, on Dec. 7-15.

 

This group won the 2017 Juniors and 2019 Seniors Berkshire County Youth Football championships and have gone 25-0 since being together as Pee Wees back in 2015.

 

"It’s a talented group of kids that have performed well on the field," fifth-year coach Jason Pause said. "We are all excited to see how this team matches up on a bigger stage. It’s a great opportunity and experience for these kids."

 

Last year, the Pittsfield Bulldogs competed in this tournament and held their own, going 1-1, representing Berkshire County very well.

 

The Hall of Fame World Youth National Football Championship Tournament is in its third year, and 14U Tigers were invited to play in the tournament back in September. The director of the tournament said it is getting bigger and bigger every year and received triple the team nominations over last year.

 

Since winning the BCYF championship on Oct. 27, the team has been trying to find time and places to practice and keep the kids in football shape while many of them are already moving onto the next sport. Half the team also makes up our seventh- and eighth-grade travel basketball team for Mount Greylock so we have had to do some back-to-back basketball and football practices in the gym to squeeze everything in. It’s been tough, but we keep telling them, this is a privilege and not many other kids are still playing football right now or will get to experience this type of event.

 

As a team, we would like to thank all those people and local businesses that have donated to our team. We have been fundraising to help support the families for this trip since we found out about it back in September.